Pressure on schools to improve encourages a culture of “quick fixes” rather than lasting solutions that will benefit children in the future, a head teachers’ leader has warned.

Thousands of pupils will learn their GCSE results today.

Heath Monk, chief executive of Future Leaders, which trains teachers to run schools in poor communities, said that deadlines for schools to meet GCSE results targets or improve their Ofsted ratings risk making head teachers concentrate on the short term.

The focus on GCSE results in government league tables has created an incentive for schools to use extra intervention to boost the results of pupils aged 15 and 16 in their final year before GCSEs, Mr Monk said.